Trying vs. Letting Things Happen- Andrea

It’s been an interesting week here philosophy 12,Ive questioned all my thoughts, turned my world upside own, and have been left utterly clueless.I’m not really sure where I’m heading now, but I’m going to try my best to sort it all out here.

My philosopher was the one and only Shakespeare,and I regretted that decision. When I originally tried to go out and do a planned event and tried really hard to think about his ideas and theories, nothing came to me. I drew a blank and I panicked at the thought of me eventually failing this class. When I had finished my day and had absolutely nothing to show for it, I promised myself to follow a different approach. I woke up, and I laid in bed for four hours. I watched some Hamlet, read some Macbeth, and I drew a picture. More had come to me on this day than the other, that in itself was an interesting finding.

So what my group ended up agreeing on was that the main theme that came up in our different days was that over thinking limits experiences and that expectations only limit the experiences that we can have. Funny thing is that when we tried to puzzle the question, “what is the mind” the mind itself was that roadblock to figuring it out. This conclusion is the destruction to the public school system, no grades, marks, or exceptions. Imagine showing up on the first day of kindergarten , all bright and cheerful, looking forward too all the wonderful things your teachers will attempt to engrave in your small mind, and being told “Class, today I just want you to think.” Which brings me to the contradiction to our concept, Expectations set up a standard that allows us to come up with ideas and experiences that can further us in our understanding.

This hit me very hard as it applies very much to me. My names is Andrea, and I’m a die-hard try-hard, goal setting, list making maniac. I have two whiteboards at home (and hopefully will be adding another soon) that I write my schedule and make to do lists on. Be it hard to believe, my mind needs organization, and part of that involves making goals, setting expectations on myself, and overall trying really hard to get things done. I don’t live my life just trying to be better, I have to get better grades, be more involved, and trying to achieve above average. This is a bad thing kids, don’t do what I do. This all has caused me to be stressed at all times, and it has been a huge problem especially in high school. More and more I have realized that these methods are not ok nor safe. Which is why I really have to push myself to unwind, to take a breath, and just lay down every once in a while. I believe that in order to truly ride out these contradictions we must see them as a roller coaster, meaning there are times we must set expectations, and there are times we must be at peace. How much of each that we must use depends on the peaks and valleys of our own life roller coaster that we must find in order to live a happy life.

Mr.shakespeare had a different way of approaching the task at hand. He made it so that we could watch his plays, and in return their ideas would develop in our minds. Instead of placing the job of coming up with examples and stories for us to understand, he came up with them leaving critical thinking to us.Because of all the Shakespearean plays that other people and I myself have watched, we learned something. In that way shakespeare himself was also against over thinking. However, there is the argument that this way of teaching could be brainwashing, making the subject believe whatever shakespeare wanted him to. I ask you, what era was shakespeare from? The renaissance. People were just coming out of the dark ages, kidnapping was just a normal and acceptable activity. I believe that shakespeare knew that people may have needed that extra push of culture in order to become a bit more civilized.

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so” – Shakespeare

Me and Julian (who I will link to as soon as I read his post)were discussing the same topic in class his philosopher, David Foster Wallace, argued that our thoughts were influenced, for example by propaganda, fancy speeches, and something simple as TV. I pointed out to him that he was from a different era and that is why our philosophers might disagree. Then Julian and I started discussing about how we might might both deal with the contradiction, and we completely agreed that there need to be a balance. The interesting part was that when I described to him my visual of a roller coaster, he didn’t. To him it appeared more like a vent-diagram, and for the life of me, I could not imagine it his way, I didn’t understand how it could be a vent-diagram. He attempted to explain it to me, but it didn’t get through.

While I’m still struggling with Julian’s idea and many more, Through this project I have a deeper understanding of our minds, and specially what it is that makes them tick. My next question that I’m hoping to tackle, and not the scientific way but the philosophical one, is what is it that makes our minds and thoughts so different?